The Vanguard View: Insight for Association Websites

We’ve been doing a lot of usability studies and user interviews for a variety of client websites recently. And there’s one specific comment that just about everyone says about their association’s website...

There’s too much stuff!!

Yes. Every org has lots of great things they do and want to highlight. And every department/board member/committee wants to showcase their amazing work on the homepage. But by putting all of that information on your website’s homepage – you create information overload and confuse users/members.

It’s like everything including the kitchen sink has to be on your homepage...

So how do you narrow it down and bring focus?

Who is the homepage REALLY for and why are they here?

Take a fresh look at your homepage and clarify who the REAL audience is? New visitors? Existing members? Industry influencers?

If your goal is to tell your industry’s story to policy makers, then feature the good work your members do. If your goal is to highlight why you should belong your membership value proposition should be the most important thing.

The key is to recognize that the homepage is merely the gateway to the rest of your information and a good navigation structure with appropriate conversion points will get the users there. Use the homepage to tell your story to your most important audience.

Push information to the primary navigation and secondary pages

Our experience and testing shows that most returning users gravitate to the site’s primary navigation. So if the sitemap/information architecture is properly defined they will find the information they came looking for anyway. So do you really need a conversion point to every single program on your homepage?

Be sure to define the key reasons why your members or users are coming to your website and make it easy to find in your navigation. Go back to your user personas and architect your sitemap based on those user needs.

Also be suretod optimize your section landing pages to work just as hard as your homepage. This way when someone does a Google search for “YOUR ASSOCIATION conference” or “YOUR ASSOCIATION continuing education” they land on the appropriate section page instead of the homepage. This reduces the confusion of having to scroll and find what they came looking for and saves them time and lost clicks.